If 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' was 'Everybody Loves Raymond', then this was 'Married ... with Children'. In the Greek family, the bride was plain and overweight but made herself over, hoping to get a man before her biological clock ran out. In this movie, the bride looked hot even with a minimum of makeup ... though her mom looked like Kathie Lee Gifford and wore enough makeup for a much older profession than cleaning offices. The Greek family ran a restaurant. In this movie, the father worked nights in a bakery but it is never made clear whether he owned it. The Greek wedding was a major production involving hundreds of guests. The Polish wedding ... wasn't. I don't want to give away too much, but weapons were involved. I think they were baseball bats, but I'm not sure. The scene where those were used--that was memorable. I liked the performances of the actors playing the groom's parents, brief though they were.
Claire Danes did a wonderful job as the only daughter out of five children. She showed a real talent for sultry behavior, and her evil laugh early in the movie was something worth seeing. Lena Olin delivered an outstanding performance, effectively showing a wide variety of emotions, and her accent was beautiful. Gabriel Byrne had his moments as the father.
I had a hard time enjoying the movie, though, except when it was funny. Some of the humor was naughty, but that was okay. It seemed well done. The main problem with the movie was that there were good parts but nothing overall that made them fit together as a whole.
It was fun at times, anyway.
